Genshin Impact

Did Lynette’s hangout in preparation for next patch.

I got to say, they weren’t kidding when people said this is a character quest in disguise, I only did the detective side and I still feel like it’s a complete story.

Instead of focusing on relatives that divide us, maybe we should try to find the absolutes that tie us.

Song from the Arlecchino short

Heart of Stone

So I looked at the new artifact sets. One is based around the Bond of Life (damage is buffed when Bond value goes up and down, so is basically tailor-made for Arlecchino), and the other is based around Burn (basically the trash drop for people farming the other set)

Heart of Stone

Assuming that leak about the first Artifact set is true, this could imply trying to heal Arlecchino while the Bond is active can at least become a viable buffing option. As for the second set, I'm guessing this one could be possibly made with Natlan in mind (either that, or some hypothetical specialist character requiring an all-Pyro/Dendro party).

Slowly losing my mind, Bocchi-style.

It's not a leak, it's official from Hoyoverse. Burning set and Bond of Life set.

Also, Arlecchino cannot be healed by anything while in combat except her burst. It's one of her passives. You're going to have to staple her to a shielder or be really good at dodging abilities.

Edited by PhiSat on Apr 19th 2024 at 9:40:55 AM

Oissu!

Arlecchino's kit is so funny, NGL. It's literally Hu Tao's but smoothed out and optimised.

Heart of Stone

The funny thing about that is the beta testers are saying Father is slightly weaker than Hu Tao, since Arlecchino seems to obey normal reaction internal cooldowns while Hu Tao's charge attacks do not (which is why C1 Hu Tao is so broken). The trade-off is that Arlecchino has a much better area of effect kit.

That and while both want a shielder, Hu Tao is a half-HP wonder while Arlecchino seems to be a 1-HP wonder.

We shall see after the patch launches and true testing can begin. If you've been following the leaks, Arlecchino is one of the most fiddled with characters I've seen in a long time in this game. So her true power is going to take a while to gauge.

Edited by Stage7-4 on Apr 19th 2024 at 9:01:28 AM

That also means that Furina has zero synergy with Arlecchino, you are better off with Xingqiu/Yelan and Yun Jin/Zhongli if you want to safely vaporize with her, though Navia could work too with her ultimate giving Arlecchino lots of shards to work with. I imagine that Layla is also another valid teammate if you want a melt team.

Edited by raziel365 on Apr 19th 2024 at 9:04:22 AM

Instead of focusing on relatives that divide us, maybe we should try to find the absolutes that tie us.

now there's your gameplay and story integration

Heart of Stone

Yes and no. In vape Hu Tao will probably be better than Arlecchino, but Arlecchino will be better than her in other types of teams, such as Chevy Overload and Mono-Pyro. Melt is in a bit of an awkward spot since there aren't great options for her currently to guarantee she'll Melt her strongest attacks, but that could change in the future. We just need the right support for it.

Arlecchino will probably be easier at base constellations to play than Hu Tao as well, but that's a personal comfort thing.

Edited by PhiSat on Apr 19th 2024 at 10:10:56 AM

Oissu!

The problem with Overload is that Chevreuse is the linchpin of the team, meaning your only shield options at the moment are Thoma and weird things like Beidou and C4 Yanfei.

We will have to see if they can make it work but I sure ain't fighting no constipated beasts with a shield like that.

Mono-pyro is fine, no arguments there. Honestly the ideal situation to me is that Hu Tao and Arlecchino are good but in different ways.

Edited by Stage7-4 on Apr 19th 2024 at 9:16:58 AM

Also, Arlecchino doesn't benefit from Chevreuse's healing so there's that.

Looking at her skills and her signature weapon, I think she's going to be the poster girl of Difficult, but Awesome for this game, she's got a lot of damage potential so long as you keep her alive. You might also want to build up the ER substat in her artifacts to ensure access to her ultimate.

Edited by raziel365 on Apr 19th 2024 at 9:21:20 AM

Instead of focusing on relatives that divide us, maybe we should try to find the absolutes that tie us.

I guess the one thing she does have over Hu Tao is that she works with Bennett, since she's an attack scaler. Although it would have to be C1 Bennett, due to those Bond of Life shenanigans.

And Arle COULD work with Furina, but it would have to be C1 or C2 Furina given that the no healing means less fanfare so you gotta make up the deficit some other way.

...this might sound like I'm a hard sell on Father but in truth I bought into the hype ages ago. Arlecchino has style for days and I'm at soft pity guarantee so I'm all in!

I'm guessing this mini-renaissance of Geo as of late (debut of Navia and Chiori, reruns of Itto and Albedo, and rate-ups for Noelle, Gorou, and Yun Jin) seems partially meant to build up to Arlecchino and her risk-and-reward fighting style (that, and maybe also a hint of Natlan incentivizing defensive gameplay).

Also, I am aware that the Bond of Life absorbs any attempt at healing; it's just that the aforementioned Artifact set at the very least makes such attempts not a complete waste.

P.S.: Apparently Arlecchino also has a passive that increases all her resistances proportionate to her ATK, while her Burst heals her based on a combination of her ATK and BoL value, and the aforementioned Arlecchino-friendly Artifact set boosts ATK for its 2-piece Set Bonus.

Edited by zero5889 on Apr 20th 2024 at 12:42:46 AM

Slowly losing my mind, Bocchi-style.

Capping at 20% though, which is right between "enough to notice" and "not enough to matter."

Kinda like Xiao's C4 honestly, you just wonder why? Why did they do this?

Edited by Stage7-4 on Apr 19th 2024 at 10:11:12 AM

We're also getting a free Gorou in the next big event

Heart of Stone

Hell if I know, perhaps to serve as a safety net of sorts in case players are being too careless with her.

Also, the aforementioned buff adds 1% for every 100 points of her ATK above 1000 (meaning it will max out if she has at least 3000 ATK), hence it seems to be more of an incentive to make her hit even harder.

Finally, apparently there are rumors that Clorinde and Sigewinne will also be playing around with the Bond of Life, which seems to suggest that the runoff to v5.0 may be a transitional phase between Fontaine's HP manipulation mechanics and Natlan possibly incentivizing shields and/or Geo constructs.

Edited by zero5889 on Apr 20th 2024 at 1:38:45 AM

Slowly losing my mind, Bocchi-style.

Watch the Pyro archons kit be an absurd buff with " don't be shielded or healed more than once during x seconds" as condition.

Edited by Kiefen on Apr 19th 2024 at 7:44:58 PM

Regardless if the rumors are true, the fact that Hoyoverse is leaning into Bond of Life and other mechanics that treat your HP bar more like an MP bar isn't really a sign of healthy game design. Like they're finally just admitting defensive tactics are meaningless, it's all 100% maximum no chill hyper offense now.

Add in the rumors that the Spiral Abyss is having significant changes in 4.7

Zhongli shield and Xingqiu rainswords are probably enough safety for her unless you're fighting something like Coppelia. I think Arlecchino would have a bad time with Coppelia.

Defensive tactics aren't meaningless, though. Zhongli has remained top tier forever and still remains top tier. Same with Xingqiu despite Yelan providing more damage on paper. Part of Bennett's insane power is that he not only buffs you, but makes sure it's a lot harder to die in his circle. What's pointless is turtling and whittling down opponents, since all difficult content is on a timer. Fontaine's units manipulate their HP because of the whole "water as blood" thing they had going on from being Oceanids (except Navia, for some reason).

Edited by PhiSat on Apr 19th 2024 at 11:54:36 AM

Oissu!

Judging from my experience observing the player base, it seems that most tend to ignore, if not devalue, damage negation and/or reduction in favor of healing. This is largely a consequence of the abundance of healers across the elemental spectrum, whereas damage negation is more of a Geo thing (as well as a handful of non-Geo units). Therefore, it's plausible that miHoYo is shifting the "meta" anew by making shields valuable again through characters, mechanics, and/or enemies that encourage risk-and-reward gameplay.

Slowly losing my mind, Bocchi-style.

I would say, if Arlecchino is indeed sign of things to come, then I think we can just accept that Natlan is going to be the souls-like portion of the game.

Moving gameplay to shield + bond of life units means that either there are going to be Life Drain mobs that make healing useless in general or Turns Red foes that hit harder the longer they fight like the Trashcans of Star Rail, both of which makes going all or nothing the better option than playing it safe.

And if we add Xianyun and Gaming into this, then you will also be incentivised to not get hit at all and instead dodge or jump really high as often as possible.

Edited by raziel365 on Apr 19th 2024 at 11:51:26 AM

Instead of focusing on relatives that divide us, maybe we should try to find the absolutes that tie us.

Zhongli is top tier not because he makes you immortal, it's because he makes you immune to interruption while giving a universal resistance debuff to your foes. He is not a defensive counterplay, he exists so you can ignore playing defensively altogether. Those are not the same thing.

Defense and HP in Genshin right now is sorta like how Life Points work in the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG game, the only one that matters is your last one.

Such a shift in meta could also fit Natlan thematically, considering the Pyro Archon (whoever they might be) is also the God of War, while Neuvillette's post-Archon Quest lore dump described the nation as being embroiled in a massive war that even got Capitano involved.

Also, speaking of enemies that discourage healing and/or encourage shields, I can also imagine future enemies that can steal healing (and maybe punish such attempts with deadly attacks) and/or are weak against shielded characters (think Primo Geovishap, but an entire species, or maybe reverse Black Serpent Knights).

Edited by zero5889 on Apr 20th 2024 at 3:50:35 AM

Slowly losing my mind, Bocchi-style.

The problem with any meta shift is that (despite only accounting for maybe 5% of this game's content at best) the Spiral Abyss basically operates as one big DPS check. The other 95% is the overworld which isn't really geared toward presenting a combat challenge, more puzzles and exploration. You can create enemies that can only efficiently be handled in certain ways, but as the Rifthounds and Black Serpent Knights have demonstrated that only goes so far when the end goal hasn't changed.

The abyss is set up to clear 6 waves of enemies in a minute and a half each with two teams then rinse and repeat. Because that is the overall goal, all kits are evaluated based on how they can assist that goal. Healing only matters when it's scrubbing away the attrition of repeated waves (corrosion) or when it's turned into a direct offensive benefit (Furina's fanfare buff or Ocean Hued Clam's bubbles). It's why most healing skills are doing healing in addition to 3 other things with a cherry on top. Shields only matter for blocking said attrition or to allow your combos to go uninterrupted leading to faster clears. It's not a format meant for survival or counterplay, it's more about team-setups and rotational combos. Kill it FAST.

Until an alternative endgame to the spiral abyss presents itself, or said abyss changes, then it's going to be very hard for other playstyles to blossom. And so it seems the abyss WILL be changing in 4.7 so let's see what happens.